Before publishing your app, you need to test your app from A to Z. after that you need to test the regression flow.
Getting Your App Through the App Store Review Process
Apple is known for its strict requirements for the apps that are submitted for review. That is why the first thing you should do when planning an iOS app launch is to get familiar with the App Store Review Guidelines.
First of all, you will need to enroll in the Apple Developer Program. The membership fee is $99 per year. Yet, your developer account will allow you to access all the Apple resources and tools you need to build and publish as many apps as you need.
The process of submitting your app for review is pretty complicated. First, you will have to create a unique app ID, provisioning profile, and generate a distribution certificate using your Apple developer profile.
Then you will need to use XCode to sign the app using the certificate you generated earlier, create a product archive, and add it to your iTunes Connect profile.
In your iTunes Connect profile, you can fill out all the information about the app, test it once more, and submit it for review.
You can find a more detailed technical guide to the App Store app submission process here.
To submit the app for review you will need to fill out several forms and provide the following information:
Apple claims to be reviewing and testing the submitted apps manually, that is why it takes on 2 days. The official sources state that 50% of apps are reviewed in 24 hours, and over 90% are reviewed in 48 hours. Thus, it rarely takes more than 2 days to get your app approved or rejected. Until recently, it took over 7 days to review and approve an app. The situation changed in 2016.
The following list contains the most popular reasons for an app to be rejected:
Performance issues - the app is incomplete, lacks some information, it is unstable, or has bugs.
The app is considered to be spam (the app is submitted multiple times or is blatantly replicating another app).
The app does not meet Apple's design requirements.
The app does not comply with the in-app purchase policies.
There are violations of the Program License Agreement.
The app doesn't meet the rating requirements.
The app doesn't have the minimum required functionality.
Check the guidelines one more time and try to understand the reason for the rejection. You can also reach out to the Review Board and ask for advice on how to improve your app so that it meets the platform standards.
If you are 100% sure that the app complies with the requirements, you can appeal the rejection and have your app reconsidered by the Review Board.
In addition to the public release on the App Store, you can choose to launch your app to a limited number of people using the ad hoc distribution plan (limited to 100 devices) or the Enterprise Program (membership fee is $299 per year) for sole use inside of your organization.
Publishing Apps on the Google Play Store: Things to Consider
Just like the App Store, Google Play has its own app submission and review process.
First, you need to create your Google Play publisher account. You will need to pay one-time registration fee of $25. There are no additional charges in the future, no matter how many apps you publish.
If you are planning to publish paid apps, you have to create a Google Wallet Merchant account.
The process of submission is similar to that of the App Store. You will need to prepare and sign the final version of your app, using the Android Studio and the Google Publisher account.
Similarly, you will be required to provide the app information and assets, including app icons, screenshots, and description.
You can find more information on how to submit an app to Google Play in the official guide.
Unlike a manual review process at an App Store, Google uses an automated algorithm to pre-analyze all submitted apps for obvious content violations or malware. Yet, the algorithm is not perfect. Consequently, after the app passes this screening process, it will be manually tested by a team of reviewers.
Despite combining the machine-aided evaluation with the manual review, the Play Store review process is still much faster than the one at the App Store. It usually takes from 1 to 7 hours to get your app approved.
Most of the reasons for rejection are the same as they are at the App Store. This might be due to the violation of the Google Play policies or some performance issues. In any case, you will get an email explaining the reason why your app was rejected. You can appeal the rejection or fix the existing issues and try to resubmit the app.
Take into account that your app can be suspended if there are multiple rejections. This might also affect your developer account, so be careful about this.
Despite the lower costs and shorter review process for the Google Play Store, don't give up on Apple - iOS apps usually generate more revenue. That is why we recommend taking a closer look at each of the platform's benefits.
